Kollin Wadsack

Posture isn’t arrogance. It’s how serious sellers protect everyone’s time.   A lot of reps get nervous the moment they ask for what the business actually requires.   • Meetings with functional leaders • Clarity on process changes • Cash-flow expectations • Environmental constraints • The operational facts that drive a real business case   And the first time you ask a prospect...   Do you want us to engage the functional leaders directly, or keep it consolidated under your guidance?” …you can feel the tension.   You’ll even hack some people off.   Why?   Because in that moment you’re doing three things most reps never do.   1️⃣ Setting engagement requirements 2️⃣ Putting boundaries around what’s needed to make a decision 3️⃣ Testing how serious the buyer actually is   That’s posture, presence and what’s called leadership.   And yes, some prospects will call you “hard to work with,” “arrogant,” or “demanding.”   But here’s the Cajun truth. (fyi: I’m from Baton Rouge, Louisiana 😊)   Nothing screams vendor louder than blindly showing product and hoping you hit something. And nothing screams “professional” louder than "scoping" before you sell.   This isn’t step and fetch it. It’s a scoping exercise. A financial qualification and a capital-allocation check.   Because we may very well say no. It may not be feasible and may not justify the SG&A.   That’s what business people do.   It’s what P&L decision makers expect. And that’s how trusted advisers show up.   In enterprise sales, posture isn’t a personality trait. It’s a fiduciary mindset.   If you’re serious about leading deals, you’ve got to be serious about your requirements, your boundaries, and your standards.   Executives respect it.   Deals accelerate because of it.   Pipelines tighten because of it.   And careers change when you learn to carry that presence. #CEO #AE #IndustryRep #VPofSales #B2Bsales

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Rep uses the same email template for every persona. CFO gets the same pitch as an SDR manager. Reply rates tank. Different buyers respond to different approaches. A technical buyer wants proof and details. An exec wants ROI and speed. Using one framework for all kills conversion. Spray and pray with templates = low reply rates across the board. Advent Calendar Tip 7 (of 12) 🎄🎅 Better: Test different email frameworks by persona • Problem-Agitate-Solution (call out pain, make it urgent, offer fix) • Before-After-Bridge (show current state vs. ideal state) • AIDA (hook attention, build interest, create urgency, clear CTA) Run A/B tests on 100+ emails per framework. Track reply rates by persona. What works for founders won't work for VPs. Test, measure, adapt.

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Sales Pipeline on Autopilot A mid-market IT firm faced a hidden time drain: SDRs were spending 25+ hours/week on manual follow-ups. The result? Missed opportunities. Stalled deals. Burnt-out reps. Then they switched to RiseLogic. AI agents took over nurturing + follow-ups automatically. SDR productivity skyrocketed by 60%—without adding new hires. Now their pipeline grows on its own. Imagine your team focusing only on closing deals while AI handles the busywork. [ riselogic.ai ]

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When Trevor Jett (Enterprise Sales Leader at Gong) promotes a rep from SDR to AE, he doesn't just hand them a new quota. He hands them a new social contract. On the Dynamic Decisions podcast, Trevor sat down with host Teasha Cable to explain why the best sales cultures are built on personal loyalty, not just corporate policy. He calls this the "Stewardship Conversation." "I tell them: 'You're now in my stewardship. I'm responsible for your success. I'm going to have your back. I'm going to defend you. I'm going to make sure that nobody speaks ill of you ... " "Likewise, I expect you to have my back. You're going to stay loyal to me, be honest, and contribute all that you have, and I will do the same for you. If we can establish that as a baseline, then on top of that, we can do just about anything." But this high level of trust allows Trevor to manage differently than most sales leaders. He doesn't need to micromanage the inputs because he has established a pact on the outcomes. Here are the 3 rules Trevor uses to operationalize that trust: 1. Activity Metrics are "Carbs" Most leaders obsess over email volume and call counts. Trevor calls these metrics "carbs," empty calories that fill you up but don't nourish the business. He argues that if you have to forensically audit the activity, the trust is already broken. You should be looking at revenue, if you're looking at the minutiae of inputs, you're managing a failing rep. 2. The "Squishy Metric" Ban While he doesn't overweigh activity, he is ruthless about decision-making rigor. He refuses to launch a strategy based on "squishy" feelings or soft data. He uses a strict 3-part filter for every new initiative. "If it doesn't increase revenue, decrease cost, or just materially change the way that you operate, it shouldn't get done." 3. Don't Clone Your Top Performer: Standardization is the enemy of elite sales teams. Trevor explicitly rejects the idea of forcing every rep to follow the exact same process. "I don't want to build robots. And this is interesting because I've been saying that since the 90s, but now I can build robots. I can think of an AI agent that'll do those things. I don't want that. I want humans to be humans. And if Bob does it this way and Sally does it that way, that's the magic." You hire people for their unique intuition. If you force them into a rigid compliance box, you kill the very thing that makes them successful. We often confuse "alignment" with "sameness." Trevor Jett proves that you can have a highly aligned team that operates with total individuality, as long as the foundation is built on radical loyalty rather than rigid compliance. Link to the full conversation in the comments...

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Objection handling isn't something you figure out on the fly. It's something you prepare for. Henry Schuck, CEO & Founder at ZoomInfo, recently discussed learning about objection handling at a young age. His manager at the time gave him a packet listing every objection he'd hear and exactly what to say in response. Henry had to memorize them all. While building ZoomInfo, Henry took the same approach. He created a sales playbook that cataloged every objection reps could receive, the demo flow, what to show, how customers would respond, the follow-up, and how to manage it. The takeaway? Preparation wins. When objections are cataloged and your team is armed with responses, selling becomes systematic. Hear more from Henry👇

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SDR leaders, watch for this pattern. New SDR starts. Uses your call framework. Asks simple questions. Pipeline starts flowing. Fast forward 6 months… They know the product inside and out. And oddly enough… their calls get worse. This is called The Curse of Knowledge. A cognitive bias where experts assume everyone else understands what they understand. Suddenly calls sound like this: Feature explanations Product jargon Mini demos on a cold call Instead of: Simple questions Curiosity Conversations about the problem Ironically, knowing too much can hurt discovery. The best SDR coaching moment isn’t teaching reps more about the product. It’s helping them forget it for a minute. And get back to the basics.

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Hot Take - If your AEs aren’t hitting at least 70% of their target then you do NOT need to hire more sales people! That isn’t your bottleneck! So hiring more reps won’t bring you more revenue! You need to focus on your limiting constraint: ➡️ If your reps could handle 4 more opps / mo then focus on demand generation ➡️ If your reps can’t complete POC’s in a reasonable time period then focus on the product experience ➡️ If you keep losing to competitors then focus on competitive positioning and technical capabilities & differentiators If you focus on hiring more reps when AE bandwidth isn’t your limiting constraint, then you are just flushing money away! Yes if your AE’s generate their own demand that is a little different but transparently… That is rarely the case in 2025 so don’t model that too aggressively! ➡️ If you have too many meetings for your AE’s to handle today, great! Maybe hire more AEs ➡️ If you have a crazy high win rate on your POC’s and have prospects waiting for AE bandwidth to run a POC, great! Maybe hire more AEs Look at your current bandwidth, product performance, and demand generation capabilities before you go spend more on AE headcount! AE’s are expensive resources, make sure you are ready for them!

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